Winners, losers in Dayton’s $775 million bonding plan (update)

After state lawmakers approved $531 million bonding bill last summer, construction and labor leaders wasted no time in calling for another large public works construction package in 2012.

If Gov. Mark Dayton has his way they’ll get their wish.

On Tuesday, Dayton unveiled recommendations for a $775 million bonding package that would help pay for everything from Nicollet Mall improvements to a new St. Paul Saints ballpark.

Some projects, however, were conspicuously absent.

Among those that didn’t make the governor’s list: the $67.7 million Interchange transit hub at Target Field, and a major renovation of the oldest building on the University of Minnesota’s Twin Cities campus.

The governor’s package does include $13.5 million for “critical repairs” to the Capitol building, but it’s far short of the Capitol’s $241 million worth of maintenance and restoration needs.

“It benefits the people of St. Paul and it benefits people that visit the Capitol, but in an election year it doesn’t give you a lot of bang for the buck,” Raines said. “And it could be seen by some people as legislators improving their own space, or gold-plating their own space, at the expense of other projects.”

Dayton spokesperson Katharine Tinucci wrote in an email to Finance & Commerce that the State Capitol Preservation recommendations didn’t come in time to be considered for the bonding governor’s bonding proposal.

“I expect they will be considered separately from the bonding proposal” released Tuesday, she wrote.

Tinucci added that there are “certainly many worthy projects the governor would have liked to include,” but “we received requests for projects that far exceeds the $775 million proposed [Tuesday]. … We are limited as to how much we can bond for this year.”

Overall, the bill is heavy on new projects, but asset preservation “doesn’t seem to have gotten a whole lot of support,” Raines said.

Contractors like asset preservation because it provides immediate jobs that are labor intensive, he said.

“Those jobs tend to move forward really fast,” Raines said. “You tend to have a better labor-material mix in terms of putting people to work.”

The University of Minnesota requested $90 million for asset preservation, but the Dayton plan includes only $20 million.

Overall, the governor’s bonding recommendations would jump-start $107 million worth of U of M projects (to be paid for with $78 million in state general obligation bonds, plus $29 million in university bonds).

The university is requesting $209 million.

Kathleen O’Brien, vice president of University Services, said in a statement that Dayton has been a “tireless advocate” for the university, but that she’s “deeply concerned” about the “diminished level of funding” for asset preservation.

The university manages 29 million square feet of property statewide and upwards of 70 percent of the university’s facilities are more than 30 years old, she said.

“We not only have emergencies that we need to deal with, like a wind storm or an ice storm or a leaking pipe that causes problems with a building, but we also are trying to make upgrades in buildings that allow us to improve our teaching facilities and research facilities,” O’Brien told Finance & Commerce.

The University of Minnesota wants the state to contribute $14 million toward a $21 million renovation of historic Eddy Hall. But the project didn’t make the governor’s bonding wish list. (File photo: Bill Klotz)

Other university projects that aren’t on the governor’s list include a proposed $11 million American Indian Learning Resource Center at the Duluth campus, and a $21 million renovation of Eddy Hall, the oldest building on campus.

The university wants $14 million in state bonding money for the Eddy Hall renovation, which would allow the university to decommission Williamson Hall and Fraser Hall and reorganize student services space, O’Brien said.

“We are trying to not only take care of our historic buildings … but we are also trying to decrease the amount of building space we have and only keep what we need,” she said.

Dayton, speaking at a Capitol press conference, said the public works projects under his plan would create up to 21,700 jobs. He urged the Legislature to act on it by the end of next month.

Republicans are likely to be more open to a smaller bonding package – about half as big as Dayton’s.

“My sense is there will be a bonding bill between $300 [million] and $500 million,” House Republican Capital Investment Chairman Larry Howes said in December.

“If they drag it out like they’ve done in the past, we lose the construction season,” Johnson said. “You have to have the money there in the wintertime so people can plan accordingly.”

Campus and transportation projects are well-represented in Dayton’s plan.

In addition to the university projects, the plan includes $63.5 million for the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system, $30 million for bridge repair and construction, and $25 million for the Southwest Corridor light rail project, among other projects.

Margaret Donahoe, executive director of the Minnesota Transportation Alliance, said she’s pleased to see money for local bridges because the state has a backlog of bridges that need repair and safety improvements.

“Local governments are also struggling to keep up with needed repair and safety improvements on local roads, so we would like to also see funding for the Local Road Improvement Program in the final bill,” she wrote in an email to Finance & Commerce. “We also believe that the state should continue moving forward with multiple transit lines and should be supporting the construction of the Interchange transit hub at Target Field.”

Civic center projects are prominent on the governor’s list. Dayton recommends $35 million the Rochester Mayo Civic Center expansion, $14.5 million for the Mankato Civic Center, and $10 million for the St. Cloud Civic Center.

Minneapolis would get $25 million toward a Nicollet Mall renovation.

Other projects on the list include an expansion of the HormelInstitute in Austin ($13.5 million), an improved home for dolphins at the Minnesota Zoo ($7 million) and the Harriet Tubman Center in Maplewood ($3.4 million).

The $29.4 million Hormel project, a partnership between the University of Minnesota, the Mayo Clinic and the Hormel Foundation, would provide a building addition for the Hormel Institute in Austin. The addition would house 15 research labs, research technology space, and support space for cancer research.

Every project on the list would “put workers back to work, no doubt,” Johnson said.

Several projects have been up for bonding money in previous legislative sessions, including the Saints stadium. Dayton’s plan includes $27 million to help design and build the proposed $50 million ballpark in downtown St. Paul. The Saints stadium didn’t make the final cut in last summer’s bonding bill.

Julian Loscalzo, a lobbyist for the Saints, told Finance & Commerce last week that “we are going to go after it” again in 2012. “That is basically our approach. I think we continue to build support” for the ballpark, he said.